Big Thompson River coalition to publish master plan draft in September

Organization works with landowners to form coalitions to work toward long-term recovery efforts

By Saja Hindi

Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
08/28/2014 10:04:39 PM MDT

The Big Thompson River Restoration Coalition had its final master plan meeting Thursday night to receive public input on the plans before a draft is finalized in mid-September.

The coalition hired Ayres Associates to conduct evaluations and draft a master plan, and Civil Engineer Dustin Robinson spoke at the meeting about the potential restoration efforts and working to mitigate any future flooding. But, Robinson warned, the plan is just that — it could change if homeowners don't agree with certain ideas or other variables, such as funding, come into play.

"It's not cheap to armor and really protect some of these (river) banks," Robinson said. Before a final design is completed, he said a lot of different configurations could be considered, whether they're driven by landowners, environmental or ecological concerns, sustainability concerns or hydraulic concerns.

The master plan, he said, is the idea of "let's look at everything and what we'd like to build on this place."

Robinson also said as the group moves forward with long-term recovery efforts, project considerations will also include flood plain permits and Army Corps of Engineer permits.

Gordon Gilstrap of the Big Thompson Conservation District, who also serves on the coalition's steering committee, discussed ongoing grants processes, including ones from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, Community Development Block Grants — Disaster Relief, other sources, pending congressional approval, and private donations.

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Gilstrap told residents to give input on the master plan, register with the long-term recovery group, become what is called a neighborhood reach representative, keep up to date on the coalition's work through the website and talk to neighbors to ensure they keep good records of time and money spent on restoration work — including in-kind volunteer hours. He said the coalition would also provide some assistance to residents with grant writing and informed them that the Colorado Association of Stormwater and Floodplain Managers has volunteered to provide pro bono input for residents.

Lukas McNally, watershed restoration coordinator for the Wildlands Restoration Volunteers and a Big Thompson River Restoration Coalition steering committee member, said the group is encouraging people to organize themselves and form collaborative neighborhood groups.

"This is a model we've adopted with the Little Thompson River Restoration Coalition, which they have used with a lot of success," McNally said.

The purpose of these groups would be to make sure neighbors are on the same page and have a collective mission to work toward because, as Gilstrap and others mentioned, funding is scarce.

"In order to be attractive to sources of federal and state funding, we need to put forward proposals for groups of neighborhoods and not individuals," McNally said.

McNally said the group has already done some of that type of work successfully and plans to continue.

The next step, he said, is to organize these coalitions and select reach representatives — landowners who will coordinate the meetings and collaborate with the other groups within the watershed. The coalition will then work with the coordinators on long-term recovery.

Although this was the final master plan meeting, McNally said the coalition "isn't going anywhere."

"If anything, we're going to be more busy because the master plan is coming out," he said.

The master plan assessed the river on four different categories, and those categories are geomorphic risk, flood risk, riparian habitat improvement potential and fisheries improvement potential.

"We've put those four assessment categories together and assigned them each a value such that we can identify the area of the greatest risk and address those where the greatest need is," McNally said.

In addition to the plan, he said the state is encouraging the group to form permanently as a nonprofit organization.